One hour with a wise man...

"One hour with a wise man is worth more than 1000 years with a fool!",quoted from a sufi. And last Monday, the saying demonstrated its meaning to me when I had breakfast with Ustaz Uthman El-Muhamady,a Fellow of ISTAC. It was really a chance meeting when I was a makmum in a subuh prayer imam-ed by him.We were at KB Airport on our way to KL 0645 morning flight. On arrival at KLIA, we took ERL to KL Sentral;another 28 minutes of intellectual lectures all the way...

I began the conversation by asking him about Israk Mikraj. He recited the first ayat in Surah Israk and explained to me about the convergence of two dimensions during the night travel-alam fizikal(physical world) and alam mithal.On the topic of Islam Hadhari, he explained about the work of Ibnu Khaldun and its real meaning. Currently, he is working with a state government to propagate the work of Ibnu Khaldun as in his books entitled Al-Mukkadimah.

I also took opportunity to ask him some questions about certain subject matters that I find difficult to understand in Prof Dr Naguib's book Prolegomena to The Metaphysics of Islam-An Islamic world View. He advised me to read a few books by al- Ghazali.Here is a website he recommended.

Lessons learned from Ustaz Uthman El-Muhamady:

1.To seek knowledge, we must get close to wise men.
2.To understand a subject matter, we must learn from my sources.

Thank you Ustaz Uthman;and I look forward to meet up again any time at your convenience.

PS:Here is the link to Ustaz Uthman Elmuhamady writings. Thanks to Jiwarasa for the pointer.

Comments

[jiwarasa]

Pak Adib,

Indeed, Ustaz Uthman is a wise man! I've been reading his articles in this website, if I could share: ttp://traditionalislam.tripod.com/

Ustaz Uthman is a renown ulamak who has good grasp of English language and he is also well-known for his writings and talks on Ibn Khaldun and Imam Ghazali.

Your posting also reminds me of the thick book of Mukaddimah (translated in Malay)which I have yet to complete.

[Honeytar]

Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own.
Some are wise and some are otherwise.

Thank you for the link.

[Adib]

Jiwarasa,
Thanks for the link. The three volumes of al-Mukadimmah is about 6 inches thick. However ,an abdriged version is available but I have yet to see it.

Honeytar,
The wise and the otherwise rhymes quite well.You can browse the al-Mukadimah at Specialist Bookshop,lot 321B,KLCC.It cost RM 1500 for three volumes but the ones on the shelf are NOT for sale.

[atok]

al ustaz uthman el-muhamady ni dulu ada buat kuliah di masjid muhammadi, kb (better known to kbians as 'masjid besar') on sirah nabi. kalau tak silap, pagi jumaat kot. lama dah, lupa. i attended once. he used to cry when narrating stories of rasulullah.

another site from another traditional ulama', sheikh jibrail fuad haddad of damascus (www.abc.se/~m9783/index.html) includes text by the erudite young msian scholar, sheikh muhd afifi al-akiti, another imam al-ghazali expert and a tutor of Classical Arabic at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Afifi is presently completing his doctoral thesis at Oxford University, on a newly discovered Arabic manuscript of a previously unknown theological work by Imam al-Ghazali, found at a library in Germany.

[Adib]

Atok,

Thanks for your inputs.It is our duty to attend these "majlis ilmu agama"(religous talks/lectures/discourse) every time an opportunity exits.There are a lot that we can learn-no matter how old are we or or educated are we.It may be on the same subjetc, but our understanding will improve in depth and breadth as we listen to different teachers/scholars.

Yesterday, I attended a talk at masjid AsSyakirin by Shaikh Khalid Yasin, a US muslim.He talked on my topics about The Reformations of the Ummah.

[Ambo]

Abedib:

Ambo setuju 100%.. kata2 'org yg cerdik' ni penuh makna. Sukalah ambo berkongsi pengalaman yg agak terbaru bertemu 'a wise man'. Berikut adalah kata-kata yg dituturkan oleh beliau di sepanjang pertemuan itu:

1) Dalam Hidup ini janganlah kita diperbudakkan oleh 'budak2 dunia'.

2) Tuhan menjadikan kita drp air yg hina supaya kita mengagungkan Dia dan hanya tunduk kepada kebesaranNya.

3) Kalau hidup di bandar, janganlah menjadi babi, kalau hidup di kampung janglah menjadi kera, kedua2nya adalah najis makanan org kafir.

4) Seteguk air boleh menjadikan kita syirik, sesuap roti boleh menyebabkan kita syirik. (penjelasan :barangsiapa iktiqad air itu menghilangkan dahaga atau roti itu mengenyangkan boleh jadi kufur kerana dlm iktiqad ahli sunnah wal jamaah, usaha itu tidak memberi 'bekas' (kesan). sayangnya org sekarang tidak belajar tauhid yg sebenarnya; belajar sifat 20 dikatakan bidaah. Ramai yg mengambil jln mudah belajar tauhid wahabi/salafi yg sesat & menyesatkan. -ambo)

Ambo yg jahil & hina

[Kissman Che Lah]

Abe Dib,

I have read the abridged edition of Mukaddimah and you can have / borrow it if you like; with or without exchange with other books. For people like me, the Mukadimah is beyond my comprehension. It is interesting to note that what he expressed in the book is somewhat similar to what that Russel guy (if my memory serves me right, the social contract guy) wrote years after
Regards
Kissman